Stay-At-Home Seven - November 14 to 21

Fire Of Love

Fire Of Love, Disney+ One great cinematic trend triggered by Covid was the rise of documentaries that draw on archive film and Sara Dosa has hit the jackpot with the footage shot by husband and wife team Maurice and Katia Kraft. The scientists shared a love of volcanoes - and an apparent fearlessness when it came to getting up close and personal with them - which put them in the vanguard of vulcanology in the 1970s. Dosa could have shot a straightforward documentary, instead, she adopts a quirkier approach, with Miranda July's narration often taking a tangent to consider the nature of the pair's relationship. "We erupt often," the pixieish Maurice tells one interviewer when asked about his marriage. By revealing the pair lost their lives to an eruption right near the start, there's also a doomed love element to this, although Dosa and her co-writers also smuggle in a surprising amount of educational information about the way volcanoes work along the way. While the film is never less than spectacular visually, it is also a moving tribute to the pair's own documentary skills and their dedication to helping people in areas threatened by volcanoes to live a safer life.

The Secret Of Kells, 4onDemand

Writer/director Tomm Moore has a knack for drawing on traditional myths and real history for his immersive animated tales - and you can catch his latest, Wolfwalkers, on Apple TV. This is an opportunity to catch-up with his debut - co-directed by Nora Twomey, who went on to direct the award-winning The Breadwinner. The Secret Of Kells sees a young monk trying to help complete an illuminated manuscript. Although the story is a bit sprawling - and focus is something that he has definitely improved on with Wolfwalkers - this is a visual treat, drawing on the Book of Kells and other Celtic art for its inspiration, giving it an beguiling intricacy.

Bridge Of Spies, 6.15pm, Film4, Monday, November 14

If spy-swapping sounds like a study of bureaucratic and dusty dullness, Steven Spielberg will soon banish those thoughts with this Cold War thriller that positively throbs with tension, while bringing much more humanistic warmth to the material than you might expect. Tom Hanks, who always feels somehow born to play his roles, takes on another cracker here, as insurance lawyer James Donovan, who finds himself called in to defend a Russian spy (Mark Rylance) and finds himself, by baby steps, involved in a prisoner exchange. His well-calibrated everyman is matched, step-for-step by Rylance's wryly enjoyable performance. Spielberg, meanwhile, finds delight in detail and again proves he's a master craftsman by keeping things pacy and taught despite the story's sprawling timeline and complexity

True Grit, 10pm, ITV4, Monday, November 14

Jennie Kermode writes: If film fans ever had cause to worry about a remake, it was when they heard that somebody else was daring to tamper with this 1969 John Wayne classic. Fortunately the filmmakers involved were the Coen Brothers and the result is a stunningly shot epic that garnered ten Oscar nominations. Jeff Bridges makes the Wayne role his own, with able support from Matt Damon, but the real standout is 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld as the kid who will stop at nothing to avenge her father's death. Kim Darby's turn in the original just doesn't come close. The addition of a poetic epilogue pays homage to the original's mythic status but gives this one a character and weight all its own.

Hell Drivers, 3.55pm, Friday, November 18

Andrew Robertson writes: Tom Yately (Stanley Baker) is an ex-con caught up trying to scrape by. As a trucker in the 1950s his attempts to keep to the straight and narrow are sometimes not the shortest path. There's romance, racism, recklessness. Hell Drivers tells its story with efficient abandon. The cargo may be ballast but it's well balanced. A cast of not-yet-famous faces bring to life a tale of machismo and machinery. Machinations too, in a scheme involving 'getting' and 'quick' but not everyone will be rich. Near everyone involved would go on to higher heights. Unlike many shared early works this holds up well. It may at times look clumsy to modern viewers but this is robust film-making. Six decades and change have not slowed its pace, nor dulled its anger. 'Sorry We Missed You' covers similar ground. Hell Drivers clatters along by putting its foot down. Catch it if you can.

The French Connection, 9.05pm, Talking Pictures TV, Saturday, November 19

William Friedkin's gritty 1971 thriller is as good as they get - and likely to make you mourn the fact that Gene Hackman retired from acting 16 years ago all over again. He stars as NYPD detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle alongside the equally reliable Roy Scheider as his partner Russo as they take on a narcotics ring while breaking every rule in the book. There's a docu-realism to the camerawork meaning you can almost taste the tang of the New York city streets and the subway train chase scene has also lost little of its impact down the years, even if Doyle's attitude is even more problematic by today's standards than it was back then.

Sweetheart, iPlayer until the end of the month

Marley Morrison's sweetly worked coming-of-ager sees AJ (Nell Barlow, who is a newcomer to look out for) head to a Dorset holiday camp with her mum Tina (Jo Hartley) and little sister Dayna (Tabitha Byron). They've also got her pregnant older sister and her partner Steve joining them. The usual ingredients of this sort of film are here - the thrill of a first crush, the struggle to find your own sense of self while also rubbing along with others but they're nicely worked with a good deal of humour. There's also some care taken to develp the character of Tina, so we can see her insecurities alongside those of her daughter.

You can watch this week's short selection for free over on arte.tv here. Daughter is a tactile stop-motion animation from Daria Kashcheeva, which was Oscar-nominated.